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Dictator homes

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Destroyed and burned cars are parked along the wall of Muammar Qaddafi's compound Bab al-Aziziya, in Tripoli, Libya, on Aug. 26. The embattled Libyan dictator fled his home but has, so far, refused to surrender. Francois Mori/AP

Rebel fighters are seen inside the main Muammar Qaddafi compound in Bab al-Aziziya in Tripoli, Libya, on Aug. 23. Sergey Ponomarev/AP

Tiles read 'Noriega' on the wall surrounding the house requisitioned to former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega in Panama City on June 21. Juan Jose Rodriguez/AFP/Getty Images/Newscom/File

Pictured is the late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's summer house 'Zelenaya Roshcha' in Sochi, Russia, on June 1. Viktor Klyushkin, Valery Matytsin/Photo ITAR-TASS/Newscom/File

Seen here is the former French Riviera home of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in Cannes, France, in 2007.

A mural of Imelda Marcos, widow of Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, adorns the main hall of the Santo Nino mansion in 2004. Ms. Marcos built the mansion in her hometown of Tacloban, Philippines. Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images/Newscom/File

Travelers visit the former hunting residence of the late GRD leader Erich Honecker in Drewitz, Germany, on March 20, 2010. Bernd Wuestneck/Newscom/File

This villa was the late fascist dictator Benito Mussolini's house during WWII, shown here in 2007. It opened to the public in 1978. Newscom/File

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Sacha Baron Cohen has been asked by The Academy not to dress as 'General Aladeen' at the Oscars. The world is becoming a very unfriendly place for dictators, even fictional ones.

ByScott Baldauf, Staff writerFebruary 23, 2012

Phil McCarten/Reuters

It’s hard to imagine how 2012 could be any worse for the world’s hapless and beleaguered dictators and warlords after that (ahem) horrible Arab Spring craze last year – with people-power movements toppling despots in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.